Washington (CNN) – Speaker John Boehner announced Thursday that twelve "job creators" will sit in the speaker's box at President Barack Obama's joint address to Congress tonight.

Boehner said that each of these guests exemplify regulations that have effected businesses around the United States.
These are "people with real world experience on how the regulations coming out of this administration are impeding their ability to grow their business and create jobs," said Boehner.

Among the special guests in attendance will be Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of Gibson Guitar Company. Looking for illegally imported wood, armed agents from the US Fish and Wildlife Service raided two of Gibson's Tennessee production facilities and its Nashville headquarters on Aug. 24.

A release announcing the invited guests from Boehner's office said that "unelected Washington bureaucrats won't say" why they raided the Gibson facility.

"No charges have been filed and federal regulators have not explained to the company what may have been wrong or how to rectify the situation," the Boehner release stated.

An affidavit filed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service does state why the facilities were raided. "Gibson falsely labeled the wood shipment to make it sound legal and suspiciously omitted the company's name as the recipient," stated the affidavit.

"Henry is the type of CEO that is doing the right thing," Rep. Marsha Blackburn. R-Tennessee. "My hope is that the President will listen to these employers and job creators and will help get America back to work."

Obama will outline his job creation plans in an address to Congress, and the special guests, at 7p.m. tonight.

soundoff(82 Responses)

carrotroot

No, the Gibson CEO was NOT doing the right thing. They were knowingly doing something illegal and they tried to cover it up. This would be the equivalent of the Budweiser company running a moonshine operation and then hawking it off as real liquor.

September 8, 2011 03:25 pm at 3:25 pm |

Ed Texas

Job creators. Those are definitely words the GOP/Tea Baggers can not describe about themselves. How many jobs have Boehner, Cantor, Ryan and the rest of the GOP Majority in Cogress created since they have ben in office? ZERO. They are more concerned saying "no" to everythning Obama proposes. I see the BIG PICTURE and hope others do. I will continue to support our President and remember how the GOP/Tea Baggers obstructed our government come the next electon!

September 8, 2011 03:26 pm at 3:26 pm |

Ken in MD

Gibson was raided because they allegedly imported Ebony from India, which was in violation of *Indian* law. They mucked with the label so it would appear to be a different wood to bypass Inidan regulators. Violating a foreign export law is a violation of U.S. law. So Boehner can complain all he wants about "regulations", but in this case it's Indian regulations at question, not U.S. regulations. He should get the story straight.

September 8, 2011 03:28 pm at 3:28 pm |

mary

They are making record profits and still crying!!!!!

September 8, 2011 03:29 pm at 3:29 pm |

Don

I'd like to ask these "job creators" a few questions:
1. How many jobs did you actually create?
2. How many have you shipped overseas?
3. How much money did these regulations supposedly cost you?
4. How much did you spend (waste) on lobbying?
5. How much do you receive in tax benefits?
6. What is your current salary and bonus?

Just a hunch that what they pay in bonuses to themselves, what they are gifted in tax breaks and what they spend on Washington lobbyist to try to get them out of following the law far outweighs any losses they incurred due to these regulations. And lord knows few of their companies ended up paying much in taxes.

Companies grow by innovation, not by being allowed to destroy our environment or flout our importation laws. Illegal importation of wood is what killed the majority of pine trees across the country. These laws aren't random. Gibson is complaining because they got caught trying to cheat.

September 8, 2011 03:29 pm at 3:29 pm |

Mikey

As Bill Mahar pointed out, there is no sane reason why we should treat "job creators" like they are some sort of rare bird that will fly away if we don't give them everything they want. They only react to the demand that comes from economic activity. 70% of our economy is consumer spending. Much of the rest is government spending. We need to prime the pump to get things moving. Once it starts the activity will create jobs, which in turn, will create more demand that will create more jobs and so on.

Waiting in line behind every "job creator" is 100 others who would love to take their place in the event they don't feel like takingvantage of the opportunity that consumer demand presents. They are not rare and they do not create jobs as some sort of public service.

September 8, 2011 03:30 pm at 3:30 pm |

Boytjie

I wish they would give us a list of the Top Ten regulations that are supposedly killing all these jobs.

But I am sure it is just a Talking Point, no substance to it.

September 8, 2011 03:31 pm at 3:31 pm |

Dalfrom CA

Kit Digital = Head quartered in Prague Czechoslovakia.
NewSpring Capitol = Venture Capital investors
Pathway Cenomics = DNA testing – Not many people want their DNA tested
Commerce Bank = Banking most probably did not get TARP money
CMG Finance Company = ortgage company wants those sloppy rules so they can sell funny loans again.
Synta Pharmaceuticals = Drug manufacturer wants lax rules so they can sell drugs at high prices with out testing for its safety.
Sports Clips = Franchise business means they do not have any people buying their franchises. People need $$$ too buy these franchises and run them.
Earle Enterprises, Inc in Neenah, WI is a private company categorized under Bakery Products, Frozen. It was established in 2005 and incorporated in Wisconsin. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $4,300,000 and employs a staff of approximately 30.

September 8, 2011 03:35 pm at 3:35 pm |

Rick in AZ

Boehner and company don't want to increase taxes on the wealthy as they are "Job Creators". How many jobs have Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen, Lil Wayne, Kobe Bryant and Michael Vick created? Perhaps some hot dog vendors at the games or some paparazzi.

September 8, 2011 03:39 pm at 3:39 pm |

Mindie from India

these are people who are rich and/or corporate and do not want to give up one single penny of what the Republicans have given them over the last 30 years. Job creators my arse.

September 8, 2011 03:41 pm at 3:41 pm |

Jess C

What a bunch of grandstanding idiots the GOP has become. Unbelievable!

September 8, 2011 03:41 pm at 3:41 pm |

Mindie from India

heck why have any regulations at all if they are such job killers. No problem – we'll like drinking dirty water, breathing polluted air, watching our babies die from lead poisening, watch our coastlines become slick with oil, more airlplanes crashing (no FCC regulations, remember) what does it matter to these terrorists. They're rich – they have everything they need – except one thing – YOUR VOTE. Please be wise people and stop the hate. Perhaps if congress worked with the President instead of doing everything in their power to watch this country fail, maybe something positive could get done.

Republicans are the great dividers.

September 8, 2011 03:45 pm at 3:45 pm |

Dave

"Illegally imported wood" and doing things the ringht way. Are these people serious???

September 8, 2011 03:51 pm at 3:51 pm |

NeilSeattle

I sure miss the good old days when "journalists" used proper English. EG effected vs. affected.

September 8, 2011 03:53 pm at 3:53 pm |

C. Howe Yulikit

Henry Juszkiewicz is a complete tool. The man is single handedly sinking an iconic guitar brand with mismanagement, knee jerk reactions and quickly developing a reputation as someone NO ONE wants to do business with. Small wonder he's a GOP darling.

If you are an American, you work for kitd because they bought your company. You might keep your job for awhile until they outsource it.

Cons

Kitd is about buying companies and reducing head count. The senior mgrt.has no interest in products or even customers, just reduce costs as close to zero as possible and milk existing customers as long as possible without investing in development. Buy next company before revenue loss is noticed.

September 8, 2011 03:55 pm at 3:55 pm |

Lynda/Minnesota

"These are "people with real world experience on how the regulations coming out of this administration are impeding their ability to grow their business and create jobs," said Boehner.

Regulatory job killing impediments, huh? New buzz words there, John? Or marching orders from the Koch's? BTW: The country thanks you for caring enough to actually DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING to get your fellow citizens back to work. Hopefully your own constituents will thank you as well come 2012. Ditto Cantor, Pence, Ryan and all the rest of the Republican "young guns" prostituting themselves while Rome burns.

What no Koch bros. And sports clips? Give me a break theres no shortage of hairdressers. We hire all the time if your gd!

September 8, 2011 03:57 pm at 3:57 pm |

Adam 9

Wow, 12 heads of major corporations sitting in the Republican speaker's box for the jobs speech. It must be a special occasion to have them be there in person, usually they just call in to tell people how to vote.

What no Koch bros. And sports clips? Give me a break theres no shortage of hairdressers. We hire all the time if your gd! Real 'job creaters' arent CEOs. Just look at facts. Corp arent hiring b cuz more loot n pocket and less 2 real job workers.

September 8, 2011 04:01 pm at 4:01 pm |

Steve

Boehner is dumber than I thought – bringing in "job creators." But inone in his audience will be people out of work and losing their homes. It's obvious where his simpathies are and money is coming from.

September 8, 2011 04:02 pm at 4:02 pm |

Dean

This is an excellent example of why Speaker Boehner is infinitely more intelligent than Obama. Hey Dems...suck it.

September 8, 2011 04:02 pm at 4:02 pm |

johnson

Boehner always has that look on his face that he is destroying the president. This Soldier cannot stand this country anymore. I have to be honorable, but someone disrespecting my commander in chief gets a pass. The republican party is MORE dangerous than the terrorist organizations overseas.

September 8, 2011 04:06 pm at 4:06 pm |

Sandra, Atl

I am truly sick of John Boehner, the tea party, and republicans in general. They are what is holding this country back. They so desperately want President Obama to fail they will do anything including sabotage the American people they are supposed to represent to get what they and big corporations want. The American people can just be so stupid sometime. I am not saying the President is always right, but he is not always wrong and the amount of disrepect and sabotage by the republicans is absolutely disgusting. My mother always told me that 'what goes around comes around'. It will to the republicans too at some point.

September 8, 2011 04:07 pm at 4:07 pm |

CaliforniaBC

I ask again...WHAT regulations are hurting these businesses?? How are they keeping them from creating jobs? Why did they NOT hurth their job creation beforehand? These regulations have been in effect for YEARS if not decades. They didn't hurt job growth then...what makes the GOP and them think they are hurting things now??????